Pentecost

There is an alternate reading of the gospel for this morning, and i would like to start by reading it, because while it also tells us of the pentecost moment when the apostles received the holy spirit, it is the foretelling, and it is just more human and believable.

John 14:8-17

I like Phillip. This is the kind of apostle I can relate to.

All this time, and he still doesn't get it. We often fail to understand all of the theological mumbo-jumbo that Jesus speaks as well. When is he speaking literally? When is he speaking in metaphor? Or is it a simile?

Phillip responds to literally to the idea that the Father is in the Son is in the Father. If he can see Jesus, surely he can see the Father as well. We do the same thing. Because someone can paint a picture of Jesus, or someone who may have looked like him, then surely we should be able to paint another portrait and it can be the Father, or something close.

It is in Jesus' reply that you can see that he finally figured out he was talking in riddles, and that he is running out of time. Suddenly, we get a clear picture of what to make of all this theology.
Look, don't worry about the theology, Jesus tell Phillip, it sorts itself out. Look at the works. Look at what I have been doing. That is the answer. That you can believe because of what you have seen. DO THAT STUFF. And keep doing it, and do it better, because I am leaving. You can do what you have been shown, and as long as you do it in my name, said Jesus, I will keep it right with God and it will happen.

This is such practical advice. Jesus had been going on about being in the Father and preparing a path. He had been using all sorts of metaphorical and theological language. And John has worked that language over into a poetry of rhythm and rhyme. But the truth is, we can only go so far with the high-falutin' language. And some point we need to find what I like to call the place where the rubber hits the road.

So Phillip is right to ask him to see God. Phillip is right to call him back down out of the atmosphere and say, “Show me the money.”

All this of course encourages us to ponder what it was that Jesus did. What exactly is it that he is telling Phillip to do. After all, Jesus did a lot of things.



He fed a lot of people without worrying about how to pay for it.
He brought dead people back to life because he liked them.
He wandered around and spoke to people who were running low on hope.
He told religious leaders they were too wrapped up in the details and were missing the point.
He told people they could speak to God without mediation.
He told people that God is the only divine king, implying that the Roman ruler was not divine.

See, he did a lot of things, but the one thing he didn't do- was start a church. Because what Jesus started was a path. Truthfully, he hacked down the one really big tree in the way, but then he left us with a jungle to clear. We started the church, as a means to keep the path clear, to make it easier for those who follow along behind.

This is the great joy I have found in the Episcopal Church, I am not required to start with the Bible and discover independently what it means to be a follower and keeper of the path. Over the course of time, Christians have discovered wonderfully creative and meaningful ways to keep the path from us to God via Jesus Christ open and alive.


Another fabulous thing the church has going for it is the knowledge that the people are the church, it is our relationship to God and to each other that make us a church. Today we celebrate the birthday of the church. Let's not forget that the church is the people not the building or the hardware that fills it. It's our birthday, collectively as pathmakers, and individually as members of the living body. And for a few of us here, its our first birthday in this church, for Shannon and for Claudia and for myself.

If there is any danger in the institution of church, in the keeping of the knowledge, it is that we sometimes confuse the fruits of that knowledge with the knowledge itself. Christianity invites us, as do all the enduring religions, to keep always in mind that the things of this world are not the permanent things. Not buildings, not appliances, not plants, and not even our own bodies. What endures, what matters, is not the matter, but the relationship, the people involved, and their feelings and their sense of well-being.

Jesus invite us to follow his lead, he invites us to continue his work, which is the work of God. And when we are doing his work, for his reasons, he will make sure that we can always see the path. His work was not maintaining the temple. His work was not even ending starvation. Jesus fed the hungry so they could pay attention.
The work we are left to do is to change the level of importance of the things of this earth. To deal with the bothersome, even the deadly worries of the flesh, so that we could all partake in the actual love of the Lord and each other.

When we get that right, we are no longer living on our time, by our rules, trapped by our bodies and buildings, but we are engaged in God's time, which is forever, and God's rules, which are loving-kindness, and then we do not feel trapped by our bodies and buildings, but blessed by the gifts they give and accepting of their limitations and finitude.

I try to keep to the path. I really do. But I am often distracted by my desires, by my needs and wants. When I do this, I am not living by the commandments, and so it can be no surprise that my requests go unheeded. When I am more concerned with my own power, it comes as no shock that I cannot hear the Holy Spirit.

But, thankfully, gratefully, I always have the church, I have all of you, and all of the wisdom of the institution of church, to lead me along the path of the Lord. On this day, on the birthday of the church, and the anniversary of my confirmation, my wish is that we may all be one, in intention, in spirit, and in truth.